Sunday, January 20, 2008

Lentil Sambusas

I discovered a love of Ethiopian food when I was living in Kenya and I've been enchanted ever since. I was recently introduced to an Ethiopian restaurant in Baltimore called Dukem. The menu is fantastic for both meat lovers and vegetarians and everything has been very tasty so far. If you haven't had Ethiopian food yet, I strongly recommend you give it a try.

As soon as I tried their veggie sambusas with lentils, I immediately knew I wanted to try and recreate them. With the help of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and his recipe for Ethiopian lentils, which I modified a bit to suit my tastes, I had my filling for the sambusas in a jiffy. Although these take a little longer to prepare, they freeze well uncooked and would be great to have on hand to pop in the oven when you are looking for something different for dinner. Make smaller sambusas and serve as a great little appetizer at your next party. No matter what size you make them, I can guarantee these will be big on flavor!

In medium saucepan, heat oil over medium high heat. Add onion and garlic, and saute until tender. Add paprika, ginger, allspice, cayenne, coriander, cardamom, and cumin seed, and saute for 30 seconds. Add red wine, vegetable stock, and lentils, turn heat to high and bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer, cover, and simmer until lentils are tender, about 30 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Preheat oven to 375. Remove phyllo dough from package and unroll. Cover with slightly damp tea towel. Remove one sheet, brush with olive oil, layer with another sheet. Repeat 2 more times for a total of 4 sheets. Cut sheets in half lengthwise for 2 long strips. On the corner of one sheet, place about 1/4-1/2 c lentil mixture. Fold sheet over and fold like a flag making a triangle shape. Fold all the way to the end, sealing the overlap with oil. (For a visual demonstration, check out this link) Place on cookie sheet lightly sprayed with cooking oil. Place into preheated oven and bake 20 minutes, flipping halfway through, until sambusas are golden brown and flaky. Serve and enjoy!

13 comments:

I will be making these tomorrow! I love lentils but never can find the phyllo dough in my small town so I am dispatching hubby to Whole Foods in the Detroit area after he visits the auto show. I made an African sweet potato stew last night. The whole house smells wonderful!

Thanks for posting this! I've been checking out your site for a long time now ... and will definitely try this! Our son is Ethiopian and we're always looking to bring some African cuisine into our home!

mmmm, these look heavenly! i'm constantly looking for ways to include lentils in my cooking, so thanks! are you in baltimore? i love finding out that my favorite bloggers are in the same town as me! :)

The first time I had eaten Ethiopian was at Dukem's when I was going to Hopkins. I live in Atlanta now and have had this bag of lentils in my cupboard for a few months. This recipe is perfect (and I had all the ingredients on hand). It is now simmering on my stove top and smells amazing! Thanks so much for the recipe!